Wireless Scorecard, Recession Edition
The financial results are in, so in order to give you guys an idea of how the major U.S. carriers are doing, we’ve gathered together the relevant data from their fourth-quarter wireless results and laid them out below. It’s looking like cheap is chic and the iPhone is keeping AT&T on a winning streak when it comes to new subscribers. Next quarter we’ll pay attention to Sprint and T-Mobile to see how their prepaid plans are faring after introducing new $50 plans. And perhaps AT&T and Verizon will start breaking out their prepaid customers.
T-Mobile (reported Feb. 27)
- Wireless Revenue: $4.9 billion
- Wireless Net Income: $483 million
- Wireless Data Revenue: $905 million
- Net Prepaid Adds: 355,000
- Net Postpaid Adds: 266,000
- Total Subscribers: 32.8 million
- Blended Churn (contract and prepaid): 3.3 percent
- ARPU: Postpaid $54, prepaid $23
Sprint (reported Feb. 19)
- Wireless Revenue: $6.56 billion
- Wireless Loss: $1.82 billion
- Wireless Data Revenue: N/A
- Net Subscriber Loss Prepaid: 314,000
- Net Subscriber Loss Postpaid: 1.1 million
- Total Subscribers: 49.3 million
- Churn: Postpaid 2.16 percent, prepaid 8.2 percent
- ARPU: Postpaid $56, prepaid $30
AT&T (reported Jan. 28)
- Wireless Revenue: $11.5 billion
- Wireless Operating Income: $2.7 billion
- Wireless Data Revenue $3.1 billion
- Net Subscriber Adds Prepaid: 800,000
- Net Subscriber Adds Postpaid: 1.3 million
- Total Subscribers: 77 million
- Churn: Postpaid 1.2 percent, prepaid N/A
- ARPU: Postpaid $59.59, prepaid N/A
Verizon (reported on Jan. 27)
- Wireless Revenue: $11.1 billion
- Wireless Operating Income: $3.57 billion
- Wireless Data Revenue: $3.2 billion
- Net Subscriber Adds Prepaid and Postpaid: 1.2 million
- Total Subscribers: 72.1 million
- Churn: 1.35 percent blended, postpaid 1.05 percent
- ARPU: Blended $51.72
How about MetroPCS and Cricket ?
Could you do a EOY2008 summary? Also, what about the Tier 2s?
Good info for all of us Stacey. Might you have additional data pointing to how the niche MVNOs (Cricket, TracPhone, GoPhone, Virgin, etc) are doing? Are the all-you-can-eat rate plans making anyone any money or are they just a way of attracting new subscribers in hopes of making a buck down the road?
[...] Stacy at GigaOm was kind enough to round up the Q4 numbers for the top 4 US carriers. I think it tells you quite a bit about where your carrier stands and how they rank so I thought I would share. [...]
[...] Stacy at GigaOm was kind enough to round up the Q4 numbers for the top 4 US carriers. I think it tells you quite a bit about where your carrier stands and how they rank so I thought I would share. [...]
[...] a total of 5.4 million subscribers, MetroPCS is still much smaller than T-Mobile, the smallest of the nationwide carriers in the U.S. However, MetroPCS has an annual revenue per user, or ARPU, of $40, compared to a [...]
[...] a total of 5.4 million subscribers, MetroPCS is still much smaller than T-Mobile, the smallest of the nationwide carriers in the U.S. However, MetroPCS has an annual revenue per user, or ARPU, of $40, compared to a [...]
[...] line – preferably mobile, and preferably from lower cost mobile providers such as Metro PCS and T-Mobile. My belief is that telcos are in a race against time, and these landline losses are their Achilles [...]
[...] late February ‘09, Stacey Higginbotham of GigaOM assembled a Wireless Scorecard based on Q4 ’08 statistics from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon. Based on Stacey’s [...]
[...] GigaOm has gathered financial results of major U.S. carriers. AT&T and Verizon are the obvious leaders. The iPhone has definitely helped AT&T to retain and gain new customers. Below is a copy and paste. Original data here: [...]
[...] Stacey Higginbotham | Thursday, May 7, 2009 | 8:58 AM PT | 0 comments It’s been a rough first three months of the year for the economy, but while overall subscriber growth at wireless carriers stayed pretty stable, wireless data revenue continued to climb. AT&T’s reliance on the iPhone was once again made clear, as was Sprint’s difficulty holding onto postpaid subscribers (although thanks to its $50 unlimited prepaid plan offered by its Boost Mobile subsidiary, it gained prepaid subscribers on its iDEN network).The biggest changes during the first quarter of the year were T-Mobile’s slowdown in gaining new subscribers, and Verizon’s subscriber spike brought on by the closing of the Alltel acquisition. To mark another change — the growth of prepaid providers — we’re adding data from MetroPCS and Leap Wireless to the scorecard. We’ll post Leap’s this afternoon, but note that both providers sell only prepaid services rather than contract services like the national carriers do. For reference, check out our Q4 2008 scorecard. [...]